Is the 'leftwing' roughing-the-passer rule at risk of ruining the NFL?

The rule is so unpopular that even quarterbacks – the players it is supposed to protect – don’t like it. Don’t expect a quick reaction from the league though

Miami Dolphins defensive end William Hayes was trying to avoid a penalty, instead he tore his ACL. While completing a sack on Oakland Raiders’ Derek Carr on Sunday, he did his best to avoid landing on the quarterback, which would have earned him the controversial “roughing the passer” penalty that has been driving defensive players crazy over the first few weeks in the season. In the process, Hayes injured his right knee. Now he’s out for the season and many blame the rule itself, which could very well enter the pantheon of the most absurd in recent NFL history.

The rule in question (Rule 12, Section 2, Article 9(b)) calls for a “roughing the passer” penalty when a defensive player lands on a passer “with all or most of the defender’s weight”. In other words, falling on a quarterback is out, even when it’s the result of an otherwise legal hit. Essentially, the rule is forcing some defenders to fight the very laws of physics as they try to make crucial stops. The new emphasis on the rule, which was put in the books back in 1995 but has only really been enforced this season, has resulted in a massive backlash.

How unpopular is the rule? Even quarterbacks, the players it is supposed to protect, don’t like it. There were four rouhging the passer calls in Monday night’s game between the Steelers and Buccaneers, the most in a game since 2001. “I don’t want to criticize the officiating, especially when you’re talking about a penalty that helps the quarterback out … [but] there are sure a lot of them. I can’t imagine the fans at home are enjoying it too much,” said Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Look for the “league is soft” argument to become more pervasive. Monday Night Football analyst, and former Dallas Cowboys tight end, Jason Witten went so far to call it “leftwing” during the Steelers game. Did Witten mean to say “left-field”? Or is the new rule the first step towards a socialist utopia? In this situation, however, there seems to be a rare agreement among both sides of the political aisle: the new rule is stupid.

The open secret about more than a few of the rules the NFL has established in the name of “player safety” is that the “player” they are keeping safe is the quarterback. These rules are written to make it more unlikely that quarterbacks suffer serious injuries. The reason that the league is enforcing this particular rule now seems to stem directly from Packers QB Aaron Rodgers breaking his collarbone last year after Anthony Barr fell on top of him.

Hayes’s season-ending injury emphasizes this one-dimensional approach to player safety may be putting defensive players at further risk. As San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman rightfully noted on Twitter, “they don’t care about the rest of us getting hurt. Long as the QB is safe.” Maybe Hayes’s injury was just an unfortunate happenstance, but putting defensive players in situations where they don’t know how to legally perform their jobs is a recipe for disaster.

In just three weeks, the No Falling Allowed Rule has become despised and widely mocked. It might have some competition, however, as far as the “worst rule in the NFL” is concerned. Many football writers will point towards the one that declares that if a player fumbles the ball past the goalline, and no one recovers it before the ball goes out of bounds, it’s considered a touchback for the other team. Essentially, the defense gets rewarded with a turnover, their team’s offense gets the ball back at their own 20-yard line, despite the fact that it didn’t really do anything.

Maybe the most petty of the bad rules has been the 2013 decree that banned touchdown celebrations because … well, it’s still not clear why, other than the fact that the league is run by old rich white guys who were deeply offended at the likes of Chad Johnson and Terrell Owens goofing off in the end zone. More than any other decision, this ban led to the league earning its reputation as the “No Fun League.” Commissioner Roger Goodell loosened restrictions on celebrations last year, although apparently twerking is still right out.

Then there was the Catch Rule, which is more accurately described as he Nobody Knows What A Catch Is Rule. The most notorious example of this continues to be Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant’s non-catch in the 2014 NFC Divisional Game against the Packers. By all appearances, Bryant had caught a pass at the one-yard line, but the call on the field was reversed and it was ruled an incompletion. Referee Gene Steratore’s explanation was an extended burst of convoluted nonsense that didn’t clear up anything. It ended with “although he repossesses it, it does contact the ground when he reaches, so the repossession is irrelevant because it was ruled an incomplete pass when we had the ball hit the ground.” The Packers eventually won 26-21. After numerous other examples of clear-cut catches being reversed for utterly confounding reasons, the league finally unanimously voted to simplify the rule back in March.

Bryant’s No-Catch Game wasn’t the most infamous ruling in recent NFL playoff history – that honor could very well go to the Tuck Rule Game. In the 2001 AFC Divisional Game between the New England Patriots and the Oakland Raiders, the referees cited an obscure rule to transform what otherwise would have been a fumble by Tom Brady into an incomplete pass. The reversed call kept the Patriots’ drive, and their postseason hopes, alive. They defeated the Raiders and eventually made their way to the Super Bowl, which they won. The Tuck Rule Game has been credited with starting the Patriots Dynasty and for many NFL fans that is reason enough to declare the rule the worst in league history. In any case, the Tuck Rule was repealed in 2013. The Patriots abstained from voting.

What’s most notable in most of these rules, at least the ones that the NFL finally fixed, is just how long it took the league to rework them after their flaws were exposed. If that’s any indication of how quickly the league works, don’t expect the NFL to be making any sudden changes to the “roughing the passer” rule, no matter how unpopular it becomes.